Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore - Is Alberta paving a path to erode democracy in Canada？ (feat. Cole Bennett)

00:00:00.000 Hello, I'm Rachel Gilmore, your least favorite person's least favorite journalist. Welcome

00:00:10.640 to Bubble Pop. This is the weekly show where we talk about some of the biggest headlines,

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00:00:53.520 we usually can get to at least a few of those. So, uh, drop them in the chat for sure at the

00:00:58.100 end there. All right, let's get into the show. Alberta's government as usual is up to some

00:01:04.780 bullshit. The latest, it looks like Daniel Smith's UCP is trying to gerrymander the province. I 1.00

00:01:11.480 actually got a text from a friend yesterday, uh, showing me his reporting on this and I'll

00:01:18.180 introduce him in a second. A lot of you already know who's on the show, but, uh, yeah, I mean,

00:01:22.180 I'm showing it on screen right now. It was cool. But giving me a heads up about this happening.

00:01:28.660 And basically, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, gerrymandering is when electoral

00:01:36.240 districts are divided in a way that gives an unfair advantage to one party. Republicans really

00:01:42.160 love doing this in the States. So it's yet another thing that we're importing into Canada through

00:01:46.460 Alberta. Um, this is just the latest anti-democratic act from a premier that doesn't

00:01:51.640 seem to give a shit about the freedoms of her constituents. That's what it always comes back 0.97

00:01:56.740 to that, right? Like they, they claim to be parties of freedom. And then if you actually look at what

00:02:02.480 they're doing, a lot of what they do is restricting freedom. It's ridiculous. But, um, yeah, I mean, 0.95

00:02:08.620 just look at the freedoms of trans Albertans to listen to their doctors right now. It's not good, 1.00

00:02:14.280 right um but luckily some of these alberta residents are pushing back and one of the loudest

00:02:20.840 voices holding the ucp government to account is cole bennett who you might know better as coal

00:02:26.680 not coal he makes news videos across social platforms and runs a popular newsletter that

00:02:31.880 lays out the latest breaking news i definitely am a subscriber and uh check it pretty regularly so

00:02:38.200 today i am really excited because he is joining me on the show to fill us in on the province that

00:02:45.880 seems to be at the vanguard of a lot of the worst stuff in politics which means its residents are

00:02:50.840 also at the vanguard of pushing back because that stuff then spreads to the rest of the country so

00:02:56.120 you really should care about this i am really excited for today's conversation cole welcome

00:03:01.720 to bubble pop hi thanks for having me i'm so excited to be here i'm so excited to have you

00:03:07.160 i've been watching your videos for a while i think you do a great public service uh in like

00:03:12.280 giving people digestible news bulletins and it's really great so thank you for taking the time

00:03:18.600 thank you yeah of course so okay you reached out to me yesterday and you were like rachel

00:03:23.480 something bad is happening in alberta can you please amplify this and i was like your timing

00:03:27.560 is perfect because i need someone on my podcast tomorrow so i would love to just start off by

00:03:33.160 giving you the floor for a minute, if you could just tell people like, what is going on in Alberta

00:03:39.660 with this? Sure. So I think the easiest way to describe it is about a year ago, they said we

00:03:47.140 need to redraw the electoral boundaries in Alberta, because our population has grown so much,

00:03:52.960 specifically in Calgary and Edmonton. And so the government of the day, which is the UCP under

00:03:59.280 Danielle Smith, basically they formed this committee and it was made up of two people

00:04:04.840 chosen by the UCP and two people chosen by the NDP, then also a judge that was selected by the

00:04:12.120 UCP. And they said, we want to add two seats to the province. So go and redraw the maps,

00:04:17.880 take them from 87 to 89 seats. And the committee said, okay, they went around the province. They

00:04:24.500 did a lot of public consultation. You could write in and you could say, you know, I think that you

00:04:30.100 should redraw the maps in this way, or I don't think you should do this, or I think you should

00:04:33.660 do that. And they took all the feedback and they went and they went and they redrew new maps with

00:04:38.860 89 seats. And they basically added seats in Calgary and Edmonton, which makes sense because

00:04:44.840 of the population growth. There was a majority report and a minority report. The majority report

00:04:52.440 was actually the two NDP members and it was backed by the judge who again was selected by the UCP

00:05:00.540 and they said this is the map that the government should accept that they should that they should

00:05:05.920 put in place for the next election. There was also this minority report that was done by the two UCP

00:05:13.500 members which basically wanted to slice and dice all the cities up in the province so you would

00:05:20.540 have people living in downtown calgary in a riding that also had people 50 kilometers away

00:05:26.860 in a rural area like the way they had sliced it up like a pizza so they had these really kind of like

00:05:31.600 long stretched out ridings so you would have all these rural people and all these inner city people

00:05:36.940 in the same riding which just didn't make sense and even the judge on the panel said like this

00:05:43.580 wouldn't stand up in court like we don't think this map uh is acceptable it wouldn't stand up

00:05:48.560 court it's unconstitutional like you can't have people represented in that way and they had done

00:05:53.200 that similar things not only in calgary but in lethbridge and red deer um and these are

00:05:58.480 specifically areas where the ndp tends to win most of their votes and so the ndp were to go

00:06:05.280 into the next election and win calgary and edmonton they would they would win the election

00:06:11.520 so there was kind of some rumblings about whether or not the government would accept the majority

00:06:16.880 report. It's never in Alberta's history been something for the government to not accept it.

00:06:23.520 There was one piece in that report where the judge said if we had had the ability we would

00:06:29.720 have actually liked to put 91 seats into a new electoral map because the population has grown

00:06:36.400 by 20 percent but we're only expanding the seats by two percent. However the majority report also

00:06:43.260 said that the government should just accept the report as is so yesterday the government put a

00:06:51.660 motion on the order paper to basically say they're not going to accept the majority report they want

00:06:58.380 to make it 91 seats now but instead of going to an electoral boundaries commission they're going to

00:07:04.860 have this uh commission formed with a majority of ucp government ministers who are then going to be

00:07:12.060 able to use independent advisors they called it to make up essentially a map with 91 seats

00:07:19.660 so it's not like non-partisan because it's first of all ministers are involved in this process

00:07:25.020 which no ministers whether they're you know the government of the day or the opposition

00:07:29.660 should be involved in drawing our maps and the other aspect of this is that they would like

00:07:36.700 people to believe that they are accepting the majority report and that everything's fine they're

00:07:40.700 They're just going to add two seats in, but that's really not what they're doing.

00:07:43.820 They're great at lying to everyone's face.

00:07:46.680 And so I think most people's concern is that they are going to do something similar to the minority report in order to add those seats in and try and slice the cities up again.

00:07:58.240 That is yet to be seen.

00:07:59.600 But the pattern with this government is whatever they tell you they're going to do, usually expect the opposite.

00:08:06.620 So if they tell you, don't worry, we're not going to slice up the cities.

00:08:09.460 we're just going to add two seats where we think is appropriate probably they're going to slice up

00:08:14.880 the cities then they usually do the opposite of what they say they're going to do that's comforting

00:08:19.920 sorry that's like a really long explanation but it's very it's very complicated what i wanted

00:08:27.780 yeah yeah yeah so you kind of touched on this in in your answer um with talking about how like

00:08:34.300 you know this is some of these city writings are where the NDP vote tends to come from but

00:08:39.540 you know I am curious like what do you see the implications of this act being for Alberta

00:08:47.780 democracy and kind of as a result like Canadian democracy like what do you think of this? I think

00:08:53.780 it's going to start a really unhealthy pattern if we allow gerrymandering to happen in any form

00:09:00.240 anywhere like Alberta could start it but I think you will see parties from across the political

00:09:06.560 spectrum everywhere go oh well they did it in Alberta maybe we can do it here now too like

00:09:12.240 I mean they're you know I'm I'm going to use like Manitoba as an example the NDP have a large

00:09:18.600 majority there they're expected if an election were called they would get another large majority

00:09:22.680 how would people feel if they decided to draw the maps in a way that would keep them in power for

00:09:27.740 20 years you may like them today but are you going to like them in 20 years it's just not i don't

00:09:34.220 think that's the road we want to go down when maps are drawn uh no matter what political party you are

00:09:39.980 in they should be non-partisan and you should you know you politicians are supposed to win your vote

00:09:46.620 they're not supposed to go in and try and figure out how they can get the most votes without doing

00:09:51.740 any work like we want people to feel like they need to win people's vote gerrymandering is is

00:09:57.340 not the direction we want to go. And we saw it in the United States when these Republican states

00:10:03.820 started redrawing the maps and all the Democratic states said, okay, game on, then we're going to do

00:10:08.540 it too. And I just, that's not the direction we want to go with our democracy. I don't think it's

00:10:14.400 healthy. Yeah, it erodes democracy. And I think that that's sort of this, it's this broader thing

00:10:20.740 that we've seen from Alberta like where Alberta will be the sort of thin edge of the wedge that

00:10:27.760 brings these anti-democratic acts into the Canadian like consciousness and context and

00:10:33.600 that actually brings me to another thing I wanted to ask you because one thing that I don't know if

00:10:38.240 you found this in your reporting but like one thing that I've I always encounter or think about

00:10:44.260 when I'm planning oh what am I going to cover today and stuff is you know like we both I think

00:10:50.060 have national audiences. So when you focus on one province, I'm like, oh, are people not going to

00:10:57.620 care about this because they don't live in that province? So can you explain why it's important

00:11:02.940 to pay attention to what's happening in one province, even if you don't live there? Like,

00:11:08.520 like, what would your message be to people who are like, oh, it's just Alberta, like, I don't

00:11:12.000 have to care about that? Yeah, those politics bleed out everywhere. And I think even like BC 0.98

00:11:18.140 is a great example Saskatchewan is a great example you see a lot of the things that start in Alberta

00:11:23.880 the politicians there go oh maybe I could do that too you know or or if they got away with it maybe

00:11:29.840 we can get away with it a lot of the things that happen in Alberta are typically because Danielle

00:11:35.500 Smith has this it's almost like a coalition government of like centrist conservatives but

00:11:41.080 also these really sort of farther right I want to call them like extremist voices and in order to

00:11:47.440 keep that party together she needs to kind of do some things to appease the people that are really

00:11:53.420 on the far right that are really on unpopular with i would say lots of people in her own party

00:11:58.840 but we're seeing that with conservative governments in other places as well in bc

00:12:04.820 and in saskatchewan bc is a great example because some of the farther right people sort of broke off

00:12:11.540 from the conservative party there and wanted to start their own party and you can see the

00:12:16.180 conservatives they're going okay we have to figure out a way to get them back in our tent so that we

00:12:20.380 can win the election and their only focus is on winning and staying in power and not actually good

00:12:27.240 governance and so they're they're looking at alberta and going well danielle smith was able

00:12:32.660 to do it by taking away trans rights or by you know going after vulnerable people maybe we can

00:12:40.480 do that too and I that's certainly not good it will bleed into other places yeah yeah I totally

00:12:46.760 agree like that's it's kind of what I was hoping you'd say uh I feel like I've gone off on this

00:12:51.820 soapbox a few times for for my subscribers too but like you know so many of these policies will

00:12:57.460 be introduced in one province and then others copy and then it just kind of becomes this this

00:13:02.740 uh spiral or this domino effect of uh spreading nastiness um you know and there is a lot that

00:13:10.140 canadians should care about here i mean like i'm sure you've talked about this a fair bit with your 0.83

00:13:15.460 audience but like bill 25 is a huge one um it's basically a don't say gay bill among several other

00:13:23.300 things um can you help me fill my audience in on what is going on there and feel free to give as

00:13:29.780 long as of an answer as you feel you need to so bill 25 is essentially like a don't say gay bill

00:13:35.940 They talk about it as taking politics out of our classroom. 0.96

00:13:40.040 But one thing Danielle Smith is really good at doing is distracting people. 0.98

00:13:44.980 She'll be like, hey, I'm doing this crazy thing over here. 0.99

00:13:47.840 So you don't notice her doing this other thing over here.

00:13:51.000 And Bill 25 actually takes a lot of power away from the school boards, which I would

00:13:56.120 say is more scary than them not being able to fly a pride flag.

00:14:00.340 Well, I think it's terrible that she's basically saying, listen, you guys can't fly any flags

00:14:05.240 except the alberta flag and the canadian flag there's another aspect to it which will take

00:14:11.320 the the control of school boards who we just elected last fall in alberta and give it back

00:14:16.840 to the government so the government is going to have to approve all the superintendents that these

00:14:21.320 school boards hire and superintendents are supposed to report to the school board so the

00:14:27.320 school boards decide whether to hire them or fire them and if the government has to approve all these

00:14:32.440 superintendents um i mean it's gonna they're essentially gonna be held accountable by the

00:14:38.740 government you know rather than the school boards which is i think the worst part about that

00:14:44.300 legislation and of course like i say the the idea that we can't essentially have freedom in our

00:14:50.080 classrooms anymore for students to learn about diverse subjects and you know all sides of the

00:14:57.160 spectrum they're going to basically be programmed to only think and learn one certain way I think

00:15:03.480 is really unhealthy describing this as taking politics out of the classroom is really absurd

00:15:09.160 because politics is in everything everything is political every aspect of our lives is political

00:15:15.020 and if we want to set people up for success young people they need to understand the world

00:15:21.360 that they are going in. And politics is a big part of that. So I think it's really unhealthy

00:15:27.100 for young people and for our democracy to not be teaching them about diverse subjects, 0.98

00:15:32.560 because that is the world they're going in. The world we live in is not straight and narrow and 1.00

00:15:37.380 just one-sided. We know that. Everybody knows that, whether you're on the right, the left,

00:15:42.000 the center. It is not cut and dry. It is very complex. And I think we need to set people up

00:15:47.060 for that so that when they turn 18 and they're going to university and they're going out into

00:15:52.180 the world on their own they can expect to hear diverse views and be able to have those robust

00:15:58.500 conversations that they've been having hopefully prior to that so yeah and also one thing that

00:16:05.460 struck me about that bill too is how like weirdly controlling it is while using the language of

00:16:11.140 freedom like you know things about what can be displayed in a classroom like what sorts of

00:16:17.940 pins a teacher can wear and how like they have to give both sides and i again don't know who's

00:16:25.140 adjudicating that of like uh history or a you know a political issue or something and like are you

00:16:32.900 gonna does that mean both sides of like world war ii like what i don't know it's just like what does

00:16:37.780 that mean in practice? And I also worry about how that is going to impact like the capacity

00:16:46.260 in schools. Because one thing I noticed in some of the articles is that this bill doesn't come

00:16:51.460 with an announcement of increased funding for schools, but schools are supposed to sort of

00:16:56.260 self-regulate to a degree from this like top down dictate from the minister as to what they're like

00:17:05.060 so many minutes like minuscule aspects of their day-to-day lives in these classrooms

00:17:10.340 it just seems exhausting i mean i'm just curious your thoughts on that well i i think that is a

00:17:15.940 big piece too is is people don't necessarily understand the legislation teachers are kind

00:17:20.900 of scared in this province already the government has really used them as a punching bag there was

00:17:25.620 huge strike last year and teachers were really looking for one main thing which was a cap on

00:17:31.940 class sizes uh you know we've got teachers in this province that are teaching up to like 45

00:17:36.960 students in a class like grade five by themselves could you imagine having 45 like 11 year olds that

00:17:43.800 would be insane some of them you know some of them having uh you know not being able to speak

00:17:50.520 english as their first language like how do you teach in that environment but leaving that aside

00:17:55.380 then they ordered teachers back to work and imposed a contract on them and said no you can't

00:17:59.580 strike like we're not you know we're not allowing you to do that we're gonna you're just gonna get

00:18:03.700 what we give you and then they bring in all this legislation like they they brought in bills that

00:18:10.180 basically uh teachers have to send home letters uh with students for their parents to sign off

00:18:16.360 saying what gender they were born like to confirm the gender they were born so that they can

00:18:21.480 participate in sports um teachers now have to out students to their parents if they want to

00:18:28.100 go by a different name at school. And now they're saying, oh, and by the way, we're going to dictate

00:18:34.120 what kind of things you can teach. And so one subject that the government, I'm interested to

00:18:40.740 see what they do, is talking about Canada's history as it relates to First Nations and

00:18:45.160 Indigenous people. There's a lot of residential school denialism happening in conservative

00:18:50.480 circles on the far right. And my question is, so are they going to be able to teach that

00:18:56.860 residential schools were a thing or not because if you were to ask some conservatives they would

00:19:01.000 say that they never they never did anything wrong you know that nothing ever nothing wrong ever

00:19:06.100 happened so is that going to be what's taught in classrooms under a conservative government or are

00:19:11.360 we going to actually teach them the truth and teachers don't have the answers to those questions

00:19:16.880 so i think they are they're nervous to find out on their own and there's a lot of pressure put

00:19:23.360 them to do a lot of things that i think they're uncomfortable with which is really horrifying

00:19:28.640 yeah it's awful and it's terrible yeah i i just um i don't know like when i whenever i see

00:19:38.320 this sort of focus from a government right i find myself wondering and i think that's you know

00:19:45.360 there are active efforts to foment these kinds of prejudices in the public but like you know

00:19:51.920 know you're in albert like you're in alberta like how do albertans feel like do they care

00:19:58.800 about whether a you know one trans kid is able to play on their school volleyball team like

00:20:06.400 do they care about um you know basically the the biology like genital checks that they're having

00:20:14.640 parents do to ensure that there isn't that one kid playing on like the one team in the school board

00:20:23.680 and like I don't know I mean is this something that Albertans are politically focused on to the

00:20:31.780 same degree as their government is litigating and legislating I just I'm curious about how

00:20:39.300 much this government actually reflects the people and what they care about?

00:20:44.380 Well, in the last election, Danielle Smith ran on a tax cut and she ran on Alberta first,

00:20:51.360 essentially, you know, Alberta getting more control of its resources than Ottawa would like,

00:20:58.540 you know, basically not allowing Ottawa to dictate Alberta policy. Not once in her election

00:21:03.520 campaign? Did she mention trans kids? Did she mention pride flags in classrooms? Did she 0.97

00:21:09.580 mention, you know, checking genders before kids can play in sports? None of that was ever mentioned

00:21:16.180 in an election campaign. And I would say had she ran on that type of platform, I don't think she

00:21:22.780 would have won. So the answer to that is no, I don't think most Albertans are concerned about

00:21:28.820 this. I think Danielle uses it as a distraction tactic to take away from the fact that she's 0.57

00:21:35.520 not doing things for the average Albertan. Like most people in Alberta, like there's some crazy 0.89

00:21:41.480 stats, like one in three kids are going to school hungry. One third of families in Calgary can't

00:21:47.060 afford to put food on the table. It's like four out of five Albertans don't have $300 to cover

00:21:52.700 emergency expense. Homelessness in Edmonton has doubled. We are seeing homelessness in rural areas

00:22:00.060 where it typically was non-existent. It was sort of only in the more urban centers. It has now

00:22:05.640 quadrupled in some areas, like some really horrifying facts, which this government doesn't

00:22:11.600 talk about and they don't address. And I believe it's their belief if they keep talking about

00:22:17.340 these sort of wedge issues that maybe 10 to 20 percent of Albertans are really passionate about

00:22:24.120 because they're they're just passionate about hating other people that don't look like them

00:22:28.680 then they can distract away from their failures you know last year this government paid out

00:22:34.800 hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements to coal companies when the federal

00:22:40.020 government introduced the 200 disability benefit the Alberta government said we're not going to

00:22:46.400 allow you to have it we're going to pry it back from you guys so they're really doing a lot of

00:22:51.020 horrible things that are not benefiting the average Albertan spending money like crazy

00:22:55.880 and this is a way for them to distract away from that and get people to talk about something else

00:23:01.380 saying that I think people are starting to see through it all and they're starting to look at

00:23:07.400 their pocketbooks and realize okay you guys are talking about all this stuff but I can't afford 1.00

00:23:11.880 to pay my car insurance i can't afford to pay my heating bill uh it's not trans kids at school 0.93

00:23:18.600 that are affecting my heating bill or my car insurance and so i think that's sort of the

00:23:23.560 message that people are starting to get like this is just not this is not how is this helping me

00:23:27.720 this is not helping me and they're seeing the frustration and anger from people and now coming

00:23:33.560 to the redistricting the the usp is starting to think oh i don't think we're going to win the

00:23:38.360 the next election so now we need to figure out how we can sort of like cheat to win or rig the

00:23:43.260 election in our favor. Yikes that's yeah that's spooky um I hope I hope uh any anything that

00:23:50.820 pushes in that direction fails um you know I and you kind of touched on this in the answer you just

00:23:57.520 gave but you know related to whether Albertans actually care about this stuff I I find myself

00:24:04.080 wondering and maybe this is it requires a lot of speculation on your part so you can answer this

00:24:09.020 question however you feel comfortable but like what is your sense from your time covering Alberta

00:24:14.700 politics of whether like does Danielle Smith like what's what's her goal in these weirdo policies

00:24:24.200 and stuff like is it ideology is it um like does she genuinely really just I mean I don't see how

00:24:32.640 you can do this without at least being apathetic to the point of hatred um for towards trans kids

00:24:38.580 but like it is it really about the trans kids for her is it is it um really about the you know 0.68

00:24:46.700 pride flags in school for like is is is it i understand that like she is all of the phobics 0.93

00:24:53.520 just by nature of the policies she's implementing that will kill trans kids to be clear like they're 0.90

00:24:59.680 More trans kids are going to leave us as a result of these policies, which is why we have to fight them all tooth and nail. 0.62

00:25:05.780 So I'm not trying to say that, like, there's any wiggle room there, but I am just curious about, like, what her motivations really are with all of this and what your sense is of that. 0.99

00:25:15.680 And you kind of touched on that in your last answer, but I'm curious if you could dig in a little bit more.

00:25:20.000 That's a good question. And, you know, I think about 10 years ago, there's a video of her in the legislature.

00:25:25.580 she's crying and she's talking about trans kids feeling unsafe at school and so her views have

00:25:32.620 really shifted in the past number of years uh i think danielle smith is just does whatever she

00:25:40.960 thinks is popular at the time rather than doing what's right i'm not sure she really has any

00:25:46.520 values that she holds which i think is kind of dangerous when you see politicians who are really

00:25:51.020 just willing to to jump from one side to the other in order to maintain power and i think 0.99

00:25:58.060 that's what it comes down to danielle if i was to assume it's really about whatever she can do to 1.00

00:26:03.260 stay in power is is what she's going to do and even if she has to go after the most vulnerable 1.00

00:26:09.460 people she will do it and while it may not be popular to most people to go after trans kids

00:26:16.700 like i think the majority of albertans are not thinking about trans people like i don't think

00:26:21.040 that's on their mind she knows that she has to pander to that 10 to 20 percent in order to stay 1.00

00:26:27.380 in power so she's pandering to the two out of 10 people rather than the majority of people and then

00:26:33.900 there's this other sort of section of people in the middle who are like it's not that they they

00:26:40.700 hate trans people but they also don't love them and they're just they sort of have no opinion

00:26:44.440 and to them it's just like whatever which is also not great uh and she's figured out that she can

00:26:49.740 hopefully get away with this sort of thing but yeah i would say her general motive is just 1.00

00:26:57.460 whatever she can do to stay in power it doesn't matter what her her she doesn't have any values

00:27:03.420 it's just whatever cost it's going to be she's willing to do it which is terrifying for a

00:27:08.560 politician to to think that way yeah that i i will say like on my in my time on uh parliament hill

00:27:16.120 lake in the press gallery that was the kind of politician that i found the most unnerving because

00:27:20.940 you you did you do come across politicians that genuinely care and genuinely want the world to

00:27:27.140 be better and they kind of just disagree about how best to go about that um but then there's like

00:27:33.000 the political animals you know that really are just in it like it's a game and it's about like

00:27:39.240 what how will this tick this in the polls how will like you know um

00:27:46.120 like they're just kind of willing to say and do whatever it takes to win um because and sometimes

00:27:52.120 some of them justify it as like well winning is the means to the end of you know doing those

00:27:57.000 things to make the world better for constituents but but then when you play that game like you need

00:28:01.720 to win the next election and so like what do you do when you're in power and so like that's kind of

00:28:06.200 what you're seeing with daniel smith did you have something to add in that yeah and i think there's

00:28:10.320 like you know sometimes i see politicians who are maybe like you know in a campaign and they're like

00:28:16.720 i don't know if talking about trans kids is a popular thing for me to do in a campaign so i'm

00:28:22.720 not going to touch on the subject but they have values in the fact that they're like if i get into

00:28:28.540 power you know we're going to make sure we protect them but on a campaign trail it's maybe not the

00:28:33.420 most politically savvy thing to do which in some worlds i can understand i can i can be like okay

00:28:38.760 i can see the end to it but if your whole point of it and like in the terms of danielle smith is 0.99

00:28:44.920 well i'm going to go after trans kids so that i can keep my coalition together so that then i can

00:28:51.440 basically you know be an oil lobbyist slash premier i don't think that that's like a good

00:28:57.920 means to the end. Like, it's just, I'm willing to hurt people for oil companies and billionaires

00:29:02.340 and then screw the rest of the province over on affordability. Like, it's really just a sick way

00:29:06.760 to go about it. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I mean, another thing that you guys are on the, I feel

00:29:14.600 so bad because I just like, I have like a list of things that it's just like, here's another awful

00:29:19.900 thing that Alberta's on the front lines of. And I just feel so bad for the residents of Alberta.

00:29:24.720 like my my mom grew up in edmonton for the first like 10 years of her life and i was there recently

00:29:30.680 and like there's so many wonderful people there and like we're such a progressive city in a sea

00:29:35.660 of blue like edmonton is the most woke city in canada i'm convinced it really it is like i was

00:29:41.080 i got there and within like my first 20 minutes i found a vegan cafe with like there were like

00:29:47.880 trans folks around it was like so welcoming and i was like oh my god i didn't think this would be

00:29:52.740 my Alberta experience. But, you know, another one of the things that you guys are unfortunately 1.00

00:30:01.160 facing in your province is this really scary attack on public health care. You know, I think

00:30:10.200 it was Bill 11 that recently became law, if I'm not mistaken, in 2025 at the end of the year.

00:30:17.680 um there's concerns that it violates the Canada Health Act um I I don't know how comfortable you

00:30:25.020 are like if this is something that you could break down for the audience um sort of what's

00:30:29.980 going on there and the impact it could have on uh you know kind of chipping away at our public

00:30:36.760 health care system that Canadians really hold so closely as a part of our identity I mean it's

00:30:42.560 what you always hear when people are like well Americans have this but they don't have health

00:30:47.000 care you know so i don't know what's going on there yeah so i think health care was another

00:30:52.560 thing that danielle smith really talked about when she was going to you know when she was running for 0.62

00:30:57.000 in the election the last election in 2023 and she made this famous quote where she said she

00:31:03.280 was going to fix health care in 90 days um which has not happened it's like over a thousand days

00:31:10.080 or something now health care is not fixed but okay so there's bill 11 there was also a bill

00:31:16.080 that was just introduced into the legislature,

00:31:18.380 I think like last week,

00:31:19.640 is another sort of privatizing healthcare bill.

00:31:23.040 And so they want to create this two-tier system

00:31:25.380 where they're essentially going to allow doctors

00:31:28.520 to not only work in the public system,

00:31:31.520 but also the private system.

00:31:32.940 And this has never really been done anywhere.

00:31:36.140 So people aren't totally sure how it's going to work.

00:31:39.800 Their claim is always that,

00:31:41.380 well, if you look at some of the European countries

00:31:44.040 in Australia, they have this two-tier system.

00:31:46.080 and it works really well. But when you start to dig into those systems, who are fairly new,

00:31:51.600 by the way, like a lot of those two tier systems are only 10 years old, people are already starting

00:31:56.700 to complain about the rising cost of insurance for these two tier systems. And so the way I

00:32:04.520 explain it to people is a two tier system, they kind of pass it off as like, well, you can have

00:32:09.180 this private insurance, it's going to be really cheap, and you're going to be able to get this

00:32:12.100 quick access and we're going to be able to expand it to private companies who are going to be able

00:32:16.740 to obviously make money off of our health care. And so then it's going to sort of take the

00:32:22.340 government's hands away from having to expand the health care system all the time. But we all know

00:32:27.040 once corporations and insurance companies get involved, there's always going to be that how

00:32:32.480 can we make more money and how can we take more control of the system? And so while it might start

00:32:39.020 out great. Like I think probably, you know, at the beginning, people will go, well, this is

00:32:43.840 fantastic. Everything's moving so quickly. I am 28 years old, and it's probably going to be in

00:32:49.280 about 40 years when I'm going to really need the healthcare system. You know, once you get into

00:32:54.180 your late 60s, your early 70s, that's probably when something is going to happen. And so while

00:33:00.920 it may seem cheap and wonderful now, what is it going to cost in 40 years? Are we going to be

00:33:06.080 paying a seven or eight hundred dollar a month premium for health insurance in 40 years because

00:33:11.680 you know let's like talk about a situation where it starts that you're only paying 50 or 60 a month

00:33:18.020 for private health care insurance that's like maybe 700 bucks a year or something if they were

00:33:23.980 to just rise that price rises with inflation over 40 years you can do the math and you can figure

00:33:29.820 okay we're going to be paying a lot of money for health care in that time and so i think people

00:33:35.640 don't understand that once we start this we can't go back like once private companies and insurance

00:33:40.380 get involved there's no going back they are going to take control of the system and if it works out

00:33:46.540 great but if it doesn't we are stuck with them and we can see how this plays out in the united states

00:33:51.740 and like i said those other systems in europe they're fairly new there may be only 10 to 20

00:33:56.880 years in but we're starting to see people complain in those areas about the rising cost about the

00:34:03.220 system really isn't any faster and so yeah i mean the government is basically selling off our

00:34:09.280 health care to private companies some of them are their friends uh which is even worse there's a

00:34:14.560 whole sort of corrupt care scandal going on in alberta when it comes to private health care

00:34:20.400 facilities which we could talk here for about two hours about the people involved and the government

00:34:25.300 ministers who have their family members basically getting these huge checks written to them from the

00:34:30.500 government. But yeah, they're creating a two-tier system where people can pay for access. And a lot

00:34:37.920 of people are like, I think this is great. We're going to be able to, you know, if you need an MRI,

00:34:41.100 you'll be able to get it quickly and it won't be too expensive. But my question is, where do you

00:34:45.600 think we're going to be in 20, 30, 40 years? And if you can't give me a good answer to that question

00:34:51.560 and guarantee me that everybody's going to be able to afford healthcare and still have access

00:34:56.360 to the public system then i don't think we should go that route yeah i mean also like one thing that

00:35:02.120 i came across when i was uh i was reading up and researching this last night to make sure i was

00:35:06.920 sharp for our interview today because i often focus federally and like you know every now and

00:35:12.520 then i dig in on the provinces and i'm like oh my god like what is going on here um but one issue

00:35:19.480 with this uh you know public private uh split that they're working on this two-tier health system and

00:35:25.720 allowing doctors to um you know work in these private uh capacities as well as public capacities

00:35:33.800 is that um apparently uh what i was seeing on a cbc interview a lot of the jurisdictions where

00:35:39.960 the system is working okay are actually very different from ours in that they aren't as

00:35:45.480 strapped they have more health care workers we already don't have enough health care workers

00:35:53.160 and so when you have individuals that are like the concern is that private companies will poach

00:35:59.080 from the public system of course and if you have doctors who are already near burnout realizing that

00:36:05.320 they can supplement their income by you know working some private hours how can you guarantee

00:36:12.840 particularly when they haven't put like they're talking about these safeguards that they're going

00:36:17.000 to implement and my understanding is that many of the safeguards that they discuss they haven't

00:36:21.560 given specifics on and they aren't explicitly in they weren't in bill 11 and so that they don't

00:36:29.240 have those in place yet so when you have a limited pool of doctors the second you introduce a private

00:36:36.520 option and you have doctors that are going to view that as appealing you are going to end up in a

00:36:42.520 position where there is less health care available as part of the public system and the first people

00:36:49.560 who are going to recognize that are going to be the most vulnerable in your province so just like

00:36:54.600 watch for them and you will see your future because you know it always gets worse and they

00:37:00.920 are the canaries in the cold mine coal mine so i don't know if you have any thoughts on that yeah

00:37:05.560 well and like another thing i will add like shortage of health care workers we can't even

00:37:09.720 keep the emergency rooms open here in umberta like a lot of the rural hospitals are just not open

00:37:15.640 24 hours or even you know 16 hours a day like a lot of them have shortened hours just because

00:37:21.320 they cannot staff them properly which you know is an issue like why don't we figure out how we can

00:37:27.240 get more doctors and nurses into this province to work in the rural hospitals clearly we are doing

00:37:32.760 something wrong if we can't you know get people to stay in those areas and work in those areas

00:37:37.880 whether we need to provide them with housing or more income or more job assurance like they're

00:37:44.840 they need to be able to get the hospitals open that we currently have and they're talking about

00:37:48.500 we need to build more capacity well okay build capacity but who is going to staff them yeah

00:37:54.800 well and that's the thing too is like uh someone said this and it's it's so obvious but i one of

00:38:00.940 the interviewees that i listened to in a cbc segment on this was saying um it's not just the

00:38:07.420 doctors right like if you're gonna have a doctor doing like a procedure there's also going to need

00:38:12.160 to be you know their staff their nurses they're depending on the procedure is you know are they

00:38:17.400 going to need um an anesthesiologist like who else like it's not just one doctor even it's like these

00:38:24.420 private um uh efforts are going to chip away in so many ways at what is available in the public

00:38:31.240 system so it's really really concerning um i i mean one thing that i uh have definitely like

00:38:39.740 there's a criticism out there that I'm inclined to agree with but I'm curious to hear your thoughts

00:38:45.320 and feel free to disagree with me about like Mark Carney really hasn't stepped in to a lot of folks

00:38:52.400 are calling on the federal government to step in and protect the Canada Health Act in this and

00:39:00.660 they've been asking Mark Carney to do something here part of the problem as I understand it is

00:39:06.120 that the federal government doesn't, and this isn't to say he shouldn't do anything, it's just

00:39:10.900 the facts on the ground when discussing this, is that Mark Carney's, like the federal health

00:39:18.520 transfers to provinces that they can claw back to punish provinces for failing to, for violating

00:39:26.280 the Canada Health Act, are much smaller than they once were. They're less of a percentage of the

00:39:30.920 health care system. And if anything, that could just make Alberta more pissed off. But, you know, 1.00

00:39:37.340 so some of the levers available aren't necessarily as strong as they once were. But, you know,

00:39:43.120 do you think that Mark Carney, like he's, yeah, I don't know, I haven't even heard him talk about

00:39:47.860 this. Like, should he be doing more to step in and stop Danielle Smith with these anti-democratic

00:39:53.600 acts, acts that are hurting the democracy within Alberta through potential gerrymandering,

00:39:59.460 um the deterioration of the public health care system in alberta attacks on trans kids um attacks

00:40:07.800 like overuse of the notwithstanding clause like i i'm just curious if you think mark carney

00:40:13.200 should be doing more to reign in these provinces in this context where as we already discussed

00:40:19.500 um we're seeing this spread it alberta starts it but it impacts all canadians so

00:40:27.680 what are your thoughts on that? Yeah I have asked myself this question so many times about whether

00:40:34.600 he should step in or not because I do believe that there is like you know if people voted for

00:40:39.240 this government then this is what they've got and there will be an election next year and people can

00:40:44.880 vote out this government and we can go a completely different direction. Saying that I think it gets

00:40:50.660 to a point to where like how much of this is acceptable in canada you know um and where like

00:41:01.840 do we elect the federal government to govern for all of canada or do we elect them to save some

00:41:08.380 people in a province like i don't i don't know a great answer to that question to be honest i think

00:41:14.360 it's a tricky one if i was i can tell you what i would do if i was prime minister i would have been

00:41:19.180 like daniel you are his son right so that's right yeah that's the ongoing joke online but yeah

00:41:25.100 i would have been like listen daniel smith we're not giving you anything until you stop with all

00:41:30.600 this bs you know we're just going to cut you off cold turkey there'll be no pipelines or anything 0.99

00:41:34.940 and in fact we're not going to be shipping oil anywhere from alberta until you cut the crap 0.96

00:41:39.300 that's probably why i'm not prime minister but um like that would be my position i wish he would 0.97

00:41:46.500 take a harder stance like he you know in the election talked a lot about protecting trans

00:41:51.320 people like he did say that in the election and talking about protecting public health care

00:41:55.760 okay so let's see some of that you know like let's like put your money where where your mouth is like

00:42:01.260 you talked about public health care so say at least say something about it do something

00:42:06.340 um i think the gerrymandering is something where they could step in like i think that's one of the

00:42:12.500 those things where you're sort of taking the will of the people away if you gerrymander the

00:42:17.140 province you know making their vote not count so i could see the feds getting involved there

00:42:21.820 but i'm not sure about the other stuff and i don't have a great answer because i i understand like

00:42:27.480 all the politics behind it and i you know sort of like the i do think when provinces elect their

00:42:34.440 government whether we agree with them or not there should be like we have different levels of

00:42:41.080 government for a reason and they all shouldn't be able to sort of override each other you know

00:42:45.560 that you know what i mean i live in quebec so yeah they're like anytime there's a little

00:42:52.020 perceived overstep by the feds it's uh oh mon dieu please the way the way i think about it

00:43:00.200 is like okay if say we elected a conservative government um like at the federal level and we

00:43:08.880 have a province like manitoba who's you know protecting trans kids and the federal government 0.64

00:43:14.320 comes in to manitoba and says listen you can no longer allow trans youth to play in sports there

00:43:23.400 like i think that would be a huge overstep by the federal government to dictate a province who has

00:43:28.880 democratically elected their their own government you know so it's yeah it's it's a tricky conversation

00:43:36.640 I don't have an easy answer for it.

00:43:39.220 Yeah.

00:43:39.900 I mean, it is tough.

00:43:43.020 I feel like sometimes those questions of jurisdiction allow governments to avoid doing something about hard things.

00:43:49.240 Like, you know, particularly when as much like it's one thing to, I don't know, when it impacts rights or when it impacts something federal like the Canada Health Act and things like that.

00:43:59.860 Like, I just feel like there's always a way that you can frame it where it's politically palatable to do something or not do something.

00:44:07.800 And so, again, it comes down to a matter of will.

00:44:10.240 But, you know, it's we're not prime ministers.

00:44:14.560 So we're not prime ministers.

00:44:16.040 And I will say, like, there is a role for the courts to play.

00:44:19.480 And, you know, the courts have done their job somewhat in Alberta.

00:44:22.860 And then Alberta uses like the notwithstanding clause.

00:44:25.320 But I think that is even getting challenged, you know, in places like how much are they going to be able to do with that?

00:44:31.060 So I really hope that our different branches, you know, whether it be the government, the judiciary, are able to protect people, you know, and their human rights.

00:44:40.560 Yeah.

00:44:41.120 Yeah.

00:44:41.500 And so we're coming up against I wanted to make sure I had some time for audience questions.

00:44:46.400 But I just have one last thing I quickly wanted to ask you, if you could, like, give me, like, your 30 second elevator pitch.

00:44:51.880 Like, what can the rest of Canada do to support Alberta while you're dealing with all of this?

00:44:58.120 So I think the rest of Canada, it's talking about it, you know, talking with your friends and family about what is going on.

00:45:04.640 If you can educate them in some sort of way, I think that is the greatest thing we can do.

00:45:10.080 Knowledge is power.

00:45:11.260 You know, you need to know what's going on in order to be able to fix it.

00:45:13.980 So knowledge is power.

00:45:14.980 Keep yourself updated.

00:45:16.320 Update your friends and your family, even if they don't really care about what you're saying.

00:45:19.060 Maybe something will break through.

00:45:20.940 Yeah.

00:45:21.180 Great. Well, Cole, thank you so much. We're going to take a couple of audience questions for about seven minutes here. So if you guys have any, now is the time to put them in the chat. And while I give you a minute to do that, I would love Cole to tell you, because I'm sure after listening to him for the last 45 minutes, you probably like, you're thinking, how can we keep up with him? I want to hear more from this guy. So can you tell them where people can find you and your work?

00:45:47.000 so if you're not ready to block me you can find me as coal not coal on basically tiktok and

00:45:54.100 instagram uh and i also have a sub stack so it is coal dot no it's coal not coal dot substack

00:46:01.220 dot com uh and i send out like a daily newsletter news sometimes opinions uh but yeah you can

00:46:07.880 basically find me instagram tiktok facebook i'm also started up on facebook so if any of you are

00:46:14.660 millennials that's where you'll find me yeah i actually i just had to make a facebook because

00:46:20.880 someone was stealing my videos and posting them all there so yeah yeah and they got like a decent

00:46:26.640 following so i was like okay i guess i should be posting here but um yeah i had to get that

00:46:31.040 had to get that account nuked by uh i reached out to some meta folks and was like hey can you help

00:46:36.060 me they were posting like old videos anyway um okay i'm not seeing a ton of questions in the

00:46:41.000 chat just yet um I will just say too that I'll have all of Cole's links in the show notes uh

00:46:46.760 depending on where you're listening um yeah I guess one thing I might ask you about like I'm

00:46:53.520 just curious about your take on the floor crossings and Carney getting his majority

00:46:57.020 um I know that's a big one and you don't have to like I don't know I it yeah what are what are

00:47:03.080 your thoughts on it if uh I was like well I'll be honest I emailed so I was you know I was a

00:47:10.080 Liberal Party member up until like the last federal election and when Marilyn Gladue crossed

00:47:15.340 the floor I emailed them and I said please revoke my membership I have no interest in being a member

00:47:20.120 of this party and not that I like support the Liberal Party financially I think I've donated

00:47:25.880 like 15 bucks to them before the last federal election and I really only became a member because

00:47:30.820 I wanted to vote in the leadership race you know at that time because I thought it was a really

00:47:34.880 important thing for our country but uh i just think the floor crossing is a little messy i think

00:47:41.720 it's a little grimy at this point i can understand like one or two you know like but at this point

00:47:48.600 it seems like it's like a business attracting people that's the exact same thing i thought too

00:47:54.240 because people kind of nickname him ceo cardi sometimes because that's what his background

00:47:59.040 right is so much in the business world and it feels like the way an executive would try to get

00:48:04.820 a majority but it's not even like it's not even carny exactly like that it's even like the MPs

00:48:11.260 themselves like when I see like Dolly Begum coming to the party but also Marilyn Gladue

00:48:15.820 it goes back to the like do you guys have any values that you actually believe in or are you

00:48:20.540 just willing to go wherever you know you think you can get the most power like totally which

00:48:25.940 brings us back to those like the political animal versus people who actually care right so it's very

00:48:31.120 disheartening we do have a question in the chat um and uh just so you know if you're not familiar

00:48:36.560 with this feel free like it's not a big deal but uh pg lemon e is wondering cole are you following

00:48:41.680 alberta's collaboration with saskatchewan ontario and quebec to pressure the feds into allowing

00:48:45.760 them more power to appoint judges and do you have any thoughts on that if you don't that's okay and

00:48:49.920 you can totally just say that and we can yeah so i think it's like another one of danielle smith's

00:48:56.240 things is she's like always trying to concentrate as much power for herself as she can and you know

00:49:02.280 them being able to select judges is a part of that saying that i can tell you like i have spoken to

00:49:08.880 um uh you know people at the federal level who have confirmed to me in the attorney general's

00:49:15.540 office that like they have spoken with alberta about every judge that they select you know for

00:49:22.440 especially like the king's court and stuff um so alberta does have a say it's just another one of

00:49:28.220 those wedge issue things where they're trying to distract people from what they're doing and

00:49:32.100 and instead of you know creating an environment where we have less crime and less poverty

00:49:37.980 they're like well it's actually the judges it's these woke judges which is just not it's another

00:49:42.540 distraction thing by danielle smith but i don't think she will be successful in that before the

00:49:48.240 next election um she's having a referendum on it but just because she has a referendum on it

00:49:54.120 doesn't mean the feds are going to allow alberta to do that and sean fraser has already come out

00:50:00.600 and said like that's a no that's a no go so she'll have a referendum on it she'll probably get

00:50:05.700 the answer that she wants from the referendum but it doesn't mean that she's going to be able

00:50:09.260 to achieve it and i don't think she will be able to before the next election all right there's one

00:50:14.660 more here that we'll take and i'm taking it because i think i really like it is um distant

00:50:20.780 tranquility wants to know what gives you hope these days cole i think what gives me hope is

00:50:28.080 well like seeing the success of politicians like wab canoe who i really like or seeing the amount

00:50:35.340 of community we have in alberta who come out to all the protests uh that we have at the legislature

00:50:40.480 or anywhere, whether it be Calgary and Edmonton, there's a lot of people that are really focused

00:50:45.760 on politics and focused on what is going on in our province, which is a great thing. People are

00:50:50.820 mobilizing. People are talking to their friends and family. I post videos about Alberta politics

00:50:57.000 now and they get hundreds of thousands of views, which tells me people are really tuned in to what

00:51:02.360 is going on in this province, which is a great thing. People are paying attention, which is

00:51:07.020 really good yeah okay we have one more minute and i just saw a question in the chat that i'll

00:51:13.480 quickly throw at you but it's a biggie so sure you know um what are your thoughts on alberta

00:51:18.640 mdp beefing with abby lewis what are my thoughts on that i think um i think federal and provincial

00:51:26.120 parties are able to disagree on a subject i think oil and gas is what runs alberta and like i think

00:51:33.200 to just ignore that is sort of like disingenuous to say um that alberta you know shouldn't have

00:51:40.720 any new pipelines like that is what makes this province survive and i know a lot of progressive

00:51:45.080 people really hate me when i talk about this but it's just the reality of the situation and

00:51:51.080 if the alberta ndp has to build a pipeline in order to win the next election i mean they already

00:51:56.640 built one they built tmx so i don't think there's any surprise to anybody that sort of supports the

00:52:01.640 Alberta NDP that that would come from them um yeah I think uh federal and provincial parties

00:52:07.540 are allowed to disagree on policy and maybe it's a little messy but yeah it just it is it is what

00:52:16.320 it is I like Abby Lewis for many reasons and then there's some things I'm like I'm not sure about

00:52:21.700 him but I think that's like all politicians with me at this point I think that's a good way to view

00:52:26.060 politicians yeah you know i don't think we should be ride or die for any politician anywhere um so

00:52:33.020 yeah i think disagreements are good they can have healthy debate about it and we can see where it

00:52:37.640 goes yeah well i appreciate that perspective from someone in alberta because obviously i have my own

00:52:44.180 feelings about it that may diverge slightly but um you know but it's still like it's interesting

00:52:50.080 because it's really important not to discount perspectives uh coming from regions that have

00:52:55.080 lived experiences that we might not understand. So yeah, I really appreciate your time today,

00:53:00.420 Cole. This was a really great conversation, really educational with respect to what's going on in

00:53:05.560 Alberta. And I know you got to run so I can cut things off here. But thank you so much. And I'm

00:53:11.800 looking forward to seeing even more of your face online and learning even more about the news from

00:53:16.700 you. So thank you so much. Thanks. You too, Rachel. I really appreciate it. I had such a good time here

00:53:21.320 today thank you thank you for listening to this week's episode of bubble pop i'm rachel gilmore

00:53:33.140 your least favorite person's least favorite journalist if you enjoyed this episode consider

00:53:37.300 subscribing on youtube patreon sub stack or wherever you like to listen you can also find

00:53:42.460 me on tiktok instagram twitch and blue sky i'd like to give a special thank you to hans vivian

00:53:47.920 Wenzel for making the incredibly groovy music for Bubble Pop. You can find more of his stuff

00:53:52.360 on Spotify under the artist's name Hans. That's a lowercase h with an exclamation mark. Thank you

00:53:58.360 again for spending this time with me. This is my dream job. I know I say that every week, but that's

00:54:03.460 because it's true every week and I couldn't do it for one second without your support. So thank you

00:54:08.840 and I'll see you next time.

00:54:17.920 You

Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore - April 18, 2026

Is Alberta paving a path to erode democracy in Canada？ (feat. Cole Bennett)

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